Early Morning in Prague

It's early Monday morning in Prague – 7am (at least when I wrote this). Traffic and people are just starting to stir. I’m blogging from a park on the banks of the Vtlava River (which I thought was the Danube – whoops!). We’ve been here less than 18 hours, and yet the city is amazing to us. I’ve found the one weak part of the city – this park is disgusting. Broken beer bottles, cigarette butts, and litter scattered all around.

Even still, it is it is a pretty view. After yesterday’s rain, it’s nice to see the river, and the Old City, waking up to sunshine – although from the sky it looks like there will be parts of the day with cloud cover.

Prague is a Time in a Bottle place. It is amazing that through all the wars in Europe, including the Cold War, that much of the history of the city has survived. One of the girls last night commented that it was like Disney – not real. And, yes, there are certain Disney-like affectations – the faux clothing worn by the trumpeters who blow their horn on the hour. But, for the most part, it is amazing how many buildings have withstood the test of time. The streets twist this way and that, around every corner a delight for the eyes.

Although the girls were quite tired through dinner last night, we did cover a lot of ground after landing here at 12:35. The trip over was relatively uneventful, and everyone got some sleep to varying degrees. We had a three hour layover in Geneva, which is nowhere near as interesting as it sounds. Apparently, there is a law in Swiss airports that the only advertising is either for private banks you are not welcome in, or for complex watches you wouldn’t know how to operate. I was thoroughly intimidated just walking through the halls. There was one ad for a fancy coffee maker featuring George Clooney, and no ads for chocolate, bier, or anything else you might expect to see. The other item that doesn’t exist in the Geneva Airport are ATMs. Since we are driving back into Switzerland towards the end of the trip, I thought it might be helpful to pre-grab (new word alert!) some Swiss francs. Except there are no ATMS. Well, at least the free chocolate half-bar that they handed out on the Swiss Air flight to Prague helped make up for that, and reminded me that Switzerland has a little more than unfriendly banks and complex watches.

Anyhow, the Iron Tourist blog is back. Hopefully. Downloading may be tricky until Vienna. Photos won’t make it on till then either.